Honda CB400F Cafe, first attempt

[75hondacb400]

hi all,

here is my cafe racer project.
its been a very slow progress as i have moved twice and getting my workshop up and running.

project started with a dirty 1975 cb400f, which i pickup from a cb400 expert. had a blown head gasket but other than that all sound. Ideas for this project is to go single sided swing arm and gxsr front end.

been buying all the parts as i find them and trying to keep the budget down.

here is the start.

 

[andycafe]

Very dirty old girl Interested to see how you go with her

 

[75hondacb400]

as you can see from the photo date, i got the old girl in 2013.
took me 6months to get my garage sorted and kitted out, then had to move to a new house and start all over again.

I have made serious progress this December and going to keep cracking on it to finish before May.

 

[75hondacb400]

it has taken me over 6months to find a vfr 400 nc30 dog bone, which i ended up finding in the beginning of December 5km from my house.

This is what the bike looks like today,

Stuff done so far

• front end mounted with tapper bearings
• vfr 400 front wheel centered, had to make spacers to get it to fit in the gsxr forks
• removed the ignition lock bracket to make space for standard gauges
• mounted vfr rear swing arm, got an engineering shop to put it all together and get it all centered
• welded in mounts for the rear shock, these are still a work in progress
• welded in the rear hop but not happy with the length so might change it
  

Stuff i still need to do

• tank - need to weld in a section to extend the length of it but 8cm, similar to neevo
• or go with a complete fiber glass tank, want to shape it myself
• make rear seat bump
• mount rearsets
• sandblast frame, then spray,
• then hopefully start it up and ride
  

 

[J-Rod10]

That shock mount needs a ton of bracing.

 

[75hondacb400]

The one photo shows the different ways I want to mount it, either 2x10mm front facing or 1x 10mm front facing and 1x 10mm upwards. Do you think 10mm thick steel is to light?

Sent from my D6603 using Tapatalk

 

[J-Rod10]

Mine is done with 5/16". It's tied in to the frame in a couple different places. But, my shock looks to operate a bit differently than yours does. It has a linkage rod that essentially compresses the shock from the bottom.

 

[75hondacb400]

Mine also has the bottom linkage, I see its just not in the photos.

Sent from my D6603 using Tapatalk

 

[J-Rod10]

Gotcha. Must have missed it scanning through the pics.

You're going to be exerting a ton of stress on a frame that is not designed for it. Brace it anywhere and everywhere that you can.

 

[Weasel]

Looks like a perfect donor bike for a project. Good luck, I'll be following along.

 

[75hondacb400]

thinking last night of redoing the mounts for the top shock to look like this, what you think?

also i got a issue with the front end, the front brake calipers are touching the disk's,
i cant shim the disk as its touching the outside of the caliper,
what are my options here, either take the front rim in and get a engineering shop to skim it down 5mm
or
skim the caliper itself down by 5mm,

whats going to be my best option?

 

[75hondacb400]

Got my steel this week now need to turn it into something useful.
Here is the design I'm going for
The last pic is what I want to do for the mount on the bottom of the frame

Sent from my D6603 using Tapatalk

 

[JohnK]

Hope you are not going to use that welder to weld your shock mount?

 

[DohcBikes]

Oh boy. Quite a bite you've taken there.

 

[Tune-A-Fish]

Not a single swinger mod fan, but the bike is a winner for the mod squad... Reek havock mang and good lucks

 

[Erskine]

I'm in. Bring it on.

 

[Hurco550]

Looks like a neat project man. I'm in. +1 on extra bracing on that shock mount, but a really nice start. Thanks for sharing it here

 

[hooligan998]

I'm in.

 

[JustinLonghorn]

I love a 400F.

 

[irk miller]

I don't know shit about designing a monoshock.